Hillary Clinton returns to Scranton for campaign fundraiser

Hillary Clinton is making her first of what locals hope and expect will be several trips to Scranton during the 2016 presidential campaign. So far, the trip only includes a fundraiser, which has some diehard Hillary fans miffed. But even so, her supporters are eager to talk about her ties to an area that could help her with among a crucial demographic.

Hillary Clinton is making her first of what locals hope and expect will be several trips to Scranton during the 2016 presidential campaign. So far, the trip only includes a fundraiser, which has some diehard Hillary fans miffed. But even so, her supporters are eager to talk about her ties to an area that could help her with among a crucial demographic.

Instead of going out to a rural lake cottage just outside the city as she did during childhood vacations, the Democratic presidential candidate will be collecting four-figure campaign contributions at a fundraiser Wednesday.

The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state has come a long way from those summertime visits to the Diamond Avenue home where her father was raised. But Democratic activists here say she's still viewed as one of them, and they proudly recount stories about how she's kept ties to northeastern Pennsylvania.

Her father, Hugh Rodham, later moved to the Chicago suburbs, where the gruff textile wholesaler and his wife, Dorothy, would raise Clinton and her two younger brothers, Hugh and Tony.

But Clinton is treated like a local in an area that has had more than its share of natives rise to political prominence. Former Republican Gov. Bill Scranton ran for president in 1964; Democrat Bob Casey Sr. served as governor; and both his son, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, and Vice President Joe Biden spent their childhoods in the city's Green Ridge neighborhood, where the fundraiser will be held.

Michael Kubel / TMC

LOCAL--SCRANTON-- The Rodham family house at Lake Winola, North of Scranton, where Hillary Clinton would visit as a child. Taken on May 2, 2007. (Michael Kubel\TMC) \for a story by Josh Drobnyk ORG XMIT: NGM_0JNNM0LT

LOCAL--SCRANTON-- The Rodham family house at Lake Winola, North of Scranton, where Hillary Clinton would visit as a child. Taken on May 2, 2007. (Michael Kubel\TMC) \for a story by Josh Drobnyk ORG XMIT: NGM_0JNNM0LT

(Michael Kubel / TMC)

"Joe's the native son, but she's the adopted daughter," former Scranton Mayor Jim McNulty said in an interview.

But Clinton already is drawing critiques from her most die-hard supporters here for her campaign logistics. So far, Wednesday's schedule only includes the fundraiser, with no public events for those who aren't able to pony up the $1,000 minimum contribution.

McNulty and his wife, Evie Rafalko McNulty, a Democratic national committeewoman, say not holding a more accessible event is a misstep that overlooks a base of support that's eager to re-engage with her campaign.

"The fire still burns in the belly of many Scrantonians for Hillary Clinton, and we just need an event to keep that burning," Rafalko McNulty said. "It won't take much. And I don't mean that disrespectfully, because it takes everybody doing their part."

Rafalko McNulty sees enthusiasm among the ground troops on a daily basis. She gets stopped in the grocery store by those looking to help with the campaign.

It's an enthusiasm she believes has grown since the 2008 primary, when Clinton won in Lackawanna County as well as statewide. That victory followed an unusually drawn-out battle in Pennsylvania between her and Barack Obama, due to a quirk in the primary calendar that, for weeks, left the political spotlight directly on the commonwealth.

Clinton made repeated appearances in Scranton and the surrounding areas, recounting for the crowds her childhood memories of spending time at a lake outside of the city and visiting her grandparents on Diamond Avenue during holidays.

A standing-room-only crowd greeted her seven years ago at Scranton High School, just down the road from that Diamond Avenue house.

At a campaign stop in Old Forge, she saw Hazel Price, who lived next door to her grandparents. Price showed Clinton a photo of the candidate and Price's daughter, Charlotte, from one of those long-ago summers.

The now 90-year-old Price is organizing local election outreach efforts for Clinton. She's known Clinton "since before she was born," and watched her grow up from a girl who liked gardens, sports and boys to the first lady and a candidate herself.

Price attributes some of the ongoing Clinton fervor to how the 2008 results played out. Clinton and Obama were so close through so many of the contests that her eventual loss might have stung her supporters more.

"I think people felt a little cheated," Price said, then pausing to rephrase. "I think people maybe felt a little disappointed. It was heartbreaking."

Price already held one meeting to begin organizing volunteers. She recalled posting a small ad to start spreading the word. Seventy-two people showed up.

Through the stories she tells and the enthusiasm she's shown for the area, Clinton has demonstrated enough local knowledge and had enough local experiences to give northeastern Pennsylvanians a sense that she's part of the area, said Chris Borick, a political scientist and pollster at Muhlenberg College.

"When Pennsylvania became important in 2008, she had an ace in the hole and she was leveraging it," said Borick, a Scranton native.

She's unlikely to see another primary election scenario where Pennsylvania is front and center. The Democratic side of the primary race is less competitive compared with the back-and-forth between her and Obama. And while the state will feature a high-profile U.S. Senate contest, it's not yet topping lists of presidential swing states for the general election.

Still, Borick said, Clinton can use her support in places like Scranton to seek to grow her backing among white working-class voters. Those voters are a shrinking portion of the electorate as the number of minority voters grows, but they remain a demographic Republicans rely on.

Clinton has led several potential GOP opponents in recent Pennsylvania polls, though a Quinnipiac University survey last month found her in tight races with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul.

Returning for Wednesday's fundraiser could help with two goals, Borick said, by adding to her campaign coffers and having her reconnect with local politicos who will keep her supporters energized. Clinton also made a fundraising stop in Pittsburgh last week.

While her campaign focuses on early primary states, local figures like McNulty will be reminding those in the area of Clinton's past visits.

The ex-mayor beamed while recounting how she and Bill Clinton hosted a gathering at Cooper's Seafood, an iconic local restaurant, after her father's funeral in 1993. There, Hillary Clinton told McNulty about taking her husband to the family's cottage at Lake Winola, for ice cream in Tunkhannock, and down to the banks of the Susquehanna River.

"And this is when she got me. She said, 'And then I brought him downtown,'" McNulty recalled, grinning as he repeated it. "Not downtown Scranton. Downtown, the way all of this area used to refer to it. To the Globe and the Scranton Dry [Goods]," two department stores that were shuttered in the 1980s and '90s.

"She knows the territory," McNulty added.

One potential local obstacle? Biden still hasn't fully ruled out a bid for the Oval Office. He said in the spring that he would decide by the summer, but then his son, Beau, died in May from brain cancer.

It's unclear when he'll publicly make up his mind. Having Scranton's most famous current figures facing off could bring even more attention to the politically fascinated city, though it also could cause discomfort as the region picks sides.

Some top local politicians already have announced their allegiances. Casey — who initially held off in picking a primary candidate in 2008, before backing Obama — came out early this time with his support for Clinton in 2016.

Casey's name is on Wednesday's fundraiser invitation, and he said last week he's been making phone calls to help raise money.

"She's really proud of those roots," Casey said, adding she mentioned Lake Winola when he saw her recently in Philadelphia. "She has a commitment to serve, cares about people and has a great work ethic, and people in northeastern Pennsylvania appreciate that."

If enough voters agree nationwide, it might be difficult to convince her father's hometown that Clinton was born anywhere but Scranton.